Arctic air blows away South Pacific

The wind, while still warm enough to encourage bare chests or perhaps t-shirts, carries within it the hint of creeping cold.We are no longer in the South Pacific.

The water temperature has dropped two degrees in the past two days and is now 24C. Though the sun rises well North of our current latitude of 22N, and we are dragging summer into the northern hemisphere in our wake, it will take months to catch up and warm these currents. On the plus side, Van Diemen III and her crew are leaving behind the humidity of the tropics and the off-watch reach for blankets when they turn in. Wizza Wise, the gentleman farmer from Neika in Tasmania, has taken to black windcheater, Mike Steel, our Californian crew member (pictured at the helm), bundles up in a lined wet weather jacket as he hunches behind the wheel. I’m holding out with skipper Robbie Vaughan and finding shorts alone will do but sense that it won’t be long before the old tracksuit is dragged from the bottom of my seabag. We are riding a gentle nor’easterly breeze but the weather forecasts indicate that we will hit a high pressure zone in the next day or so with little if any wind before coming into a north-wester that should speed us toward California. As weather forecasts go, it is optimum. One tack, from starboard to port, and on to our harbour. Fantastic, though experience tells me that forecasts rarely carry out all they promise it may be worth celebrating with a breakfast . We are now on two-hour watches, with two three-hour watches during daylight from 10am to 1pm and 1pm to 4pm. That set-up permits the watches to roll so that the crew aren’t sitting watches at the same time each day. And we’ve brought in another fish, a smaller mahi mahi than we caught off New Zealand, but appreciated just as much. Mike has a wasabe and soy recipe he says he will mix and use to dress the fish for lunch. Yesterday evening, we broke out some smoked marlin dip and also had some slices of smoked marlin with our rum cocktails. Most tasty. Why hasn’t Australia embraced the culture of smoked foods as avidly as the US? Is it that there are fewer people of German or middle European background? It seems that South Australia’s Barossa Deutsch are the only community who make smoked meats a staple though Tasmania once had a thriving smoked fish and game culture. It may be cooler but the frisson of Arctic air has begun producing beautiful sunrises.